A BETTER TOMMOROW

                                               

I write often about the past and maybe its because my memories seem much more pleasant to me then the reality of things today. Then too, maybe its because I know nothing of what tomorrow might bring, because I’m really not that involved in it anymore. But I do know where I have been and what I did and maybe in reality this is just a bunch of musings of an old man, hopelessly lost in the thoughts of yesterday. I used to live in the moment of each new day. As the New Christie Minstrels sang back in the early sixties. “A million tomorrows can all pass away, Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today.” That was my mantra back then. At that time I had no past, I wanted to recollect. Each day was a new adventure and I lived them as if there were no tomorrows that mattered. I guess I secretly knew someday the credits would roll, the curtain would fall and although for some of us there could be a short encore, basically the show was drawing to an end so make the most of it.

Well actually, not a million tomorrows, but a lot of them have passed away and my whole outlook on life has changed. Oh yes, I still cling to the past but only for my own comfort and entertainment. You see this world no longer belongs to my generation or little does the present generation even care what our dreams were, or what our accomplishments have gained for today’s society. For the most part we have now been relegated to the dark ages, even though our blood still flows and our neurons still flash, albeit much slower and dimmer. It’s time to forget the resume building and build character instead. There is a new sheriff in town and we need to sit quietly and listen.

We had our chance didn’t we? But even the person who invented the wheel-- and yes, that was before me-- never dreamed that someday it would be replaced by a driverless car that would take to the air, needing not asphalt or semaphores to get to its destination. That cancer would go the way of the mumps and we would wear our phones on our wrists like Dick Tracy, and not all of that is here yet-- but it will be.

For without change there is no need for tomorrows. Dreams and aspirations become just that: hopes of achievements that were never brought to fruition. Society is constantly being built and rebuilt on the building blocks of human minds, whose ideals belong to those who dare to dream bigger and better. These are not self-deluding fantasies; these are a blue print for tomorrow, for a bigger, kinder and better world for those we dared to pass the torch to.

It’s not any of this change that I lament today as I write this. In fact I embrace it. What makes me blue is just all of the players who were part of that cast that I lived, played and worked with— that for the most part no longer exist in the flesh. Only in the dark recesses of my mind. “Old Blue Eyes” sang, “Regrets I had a few, but then again, to few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption.”And now just like Frankie I’m stating my case without exemption, and saying to those who are succeeding my generation and me. You do it your way and I’ll just sit quietly and watch. 

AGREAT EXAMPLE

                                                

I while back I listened to some of the eulogies that were given for our 41^stpresident, George Herbert Walker Bush. One of things that moves me, when I’m listening to the accounts of the lives of those who have served all of us with such distinction, is it’s not always what they accomplished but how they lived their lives. This was a good and humble man who never became tainted by the politics of Washington even though he often had to try and play by their rules, simply because he was our President.

Alan Simpson, a friend, and a former Senator, read a quote that some of those who were in attendance should take to heart as they go about their business in the capital. His quote simply said that, “Hatred is one of the few things that will eventually corrode the vessel it is carried in.” Many of those in politics have gone away from just disagreeing with their opponents, they in turn, have turned to hating them and they are not shy about expressing it. 

Many of those in attendance at the Cathedral and many of us watching it could feel we were standing in the shadow of greatness at that funeral that day. Not greatness so much for what he had accomplished but greatness for the way he lived his life. We will all be judged someday, if not by a greater power, at least by our peers. How nice it will be to have someone eulogize us and say, not what a great person we were but what a nice and kinder person we were. Our accomplishment will always be over shadowed at some point in life but how people will remembered us, as a kinder gentler person; will live on as long as their memories do. 

I watched the demeanor of our current President as he sat stoic and expressionless throughout the ceremonies. His arms often folded across his chest in a defiant pose. I thought what is it like to go through life seemingly angry at everybody and everything? What is it like to have to go to a social event like this and know that the people who are sitting next to you in that row, are the same people you have been chastising for the last two years? What is it like for the people of this country to know that the person, we trust to run our country and keep it safe, seemingly can’t get along with anybody? This isn’t about the mans policies; this is about him. I know there are some out there who disagree with me but for the most part they too like the bully pulpit way of doing business. The flow of people in and out of this administration is unprecedented. He can’t even get along with his own appointees.

We are at a crossroads in this country. We went from one of the most respected nations on the face of the earth after World war II, to a country that right now has few friends in this world. There is no going it alone in this world anymore. We live in a global economy. We need them to buy our products, as much as we need some of their products. For all that to happen we need cooperation and cooperation is a side product of friendships and alliances that build trust. Without trust you have nothing.

HEALTH CARE

I have written before about health care and now I write again. I hear the phrase health care reform and somehow it makes me think that somehow, some place people are working to reform the way health care works, when in essence all they are doing is some unethical shell game of who is going to pay for it. Nothing is changing with the drug companies or the hospital networks prices. They just want some outside entity to subsidize the price so people can afford it. This does nothing to lower the price of health care. News flash! Tax money is our money. The drug companies offer the billions they are paying for researching new drugs as the reasons for the high costs but what good does your new drugs and new therapies do when no one but the rich can afford them. It’s as if you are taunting ordinary people with your magic pills and saying, “Want some? You’ll have to pay for it.”

Try to make sense of what that smiling little crook from Epipen had to say to congress a year ago when they were so concerned and brought him in for questioning. Yet today the price for that device, that costs little to produce, and has been around for a long time, is still through the roof. Thanks Congress for nothing. Whose side are you on? Health care has the potential and already has; bankrupted companies and people that can’t afford to pay the premiums. It’s in every political debate. Other countries have made great strides in this but somehow this country doesn’t know how. Swallow your ego Washington and look around you, across the borders where quality health care exists. The answers are there if you want to pay attention to what you see and not the advice you hear and get, from big pharma.

 My son is a retired cop, way to young for Medicare, who has to pay for his own health care for him and his wife. He works part time as a security guard in a hospital. The wages are not good, the health care benefits are. So in essence he works for health care. It used to be you worked for wages and health care was a benefit but for him at least, it’s the primary reason he has to work.

There will never be a perfect health care system because of our two political ideologies that both have their own stubborn ideas on what health care should look like. One side wants free health care for everyone. They say elect me and I will straighten this whole mess out. They never say how and they never say where the money is going to come from. Then we have the other side that leans heavily toward capitalism. A free market they call it. That might work if you had capitalism that wasn’t run amok with greed. Their greedy plan omits way to many people. Government of the people, by the people and for the people does not exist in this country. It exists only in textbooks and old cliques that date back to when our government was formed. . We have government by the lobbyists and for the lobbyists and they are the ones who rule our form of government and they will never quit until they have squeezed every last penny out of the people, as wrong as that is-- Washington should be charged with aiding and abetting.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

I wanted to talk a little bit about faith and before you roll your eyes or quit reading I would like to say, not any faith in particular, as I’m not a man of the cloth and not that qualified to speak about it. But what I want to talk about is the reason or reasons it is becoming more and more unpopular in society. It seems fitting that I am writing about this at Christmas time because there is a definite tie in with some religions this time of the year. Christmas and Hanukah both being celebrated. It is my belief that if most people don’t practice their parents faith, or any other they have been introduced too, they pretty well wash the faith part of life, out of their lives and their children’s lives’ and for most of them that’s forever. The exceptions would be spouses or friends who won’t give it up and ask you to participate. Peer pressure you might say. I could say I saw this coming a long time ago because at a young age I saw families worshiping together frequently and then later in life I noticed a lot of them dropping the kids off at church or Sunday school and picking them up afterwards and I often wondered why at some point the kids wouldn’t think, “They want me to go but they don’t?” Do as I say, not as I do, doesn’t work very well in the long run. So what do people gain by practicing some faith? Morality, virtue, love and respect for your fellow man come to mind. Look around you and see what the lack of this is doing to society. I don’t mean to imply that good people can’t live and prosper in this country without faith in some personal deity. I don’t mean to say that religious people can’t do bad things-- they can and they do everyday. Foxes in sheep’s clothing they are. But no one hates them more then the religious people, for they aren’t just sinners they are hypocrites. But the trend in this country seems to be less and less of the virtues that define us as good people and most of us need all the help we can get with that. Most religions help us keep our minds and noses clean by rules and a clearer definition of the laws of good conduct. They spell it out for us and praise us when we succeed and shame us when we don’t. A working conscience can be a good and helpful thing. Church and worship has never been a mandatory thing, at least in our society’s rules and that’s good because if you are going to win rewards for participating, it has to come from your heart. I still hear references to God and Jesus and prayers being offered for people at tragic, events. Not sure always if the sincerity is there but who am I to judge. I guess what it does say is that people are still turning that way for help in times of need and that’s what it’s there for is it not? I just think it would be nice if the beliefs this country was founded on were still front and center with people and not seemingly relegated to the back burner to be used only when things go bad. After all, even your parents when you were growing up, liked a little thanksgiving from you from time to time and not always just petitions for more things. Or is it just karma that’s important now days?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Charlotte Anselmo wrote a New Years prayer I have read over and over so many times and I want to quote the very last part of it for all of you. She said, “The New Year lies before you like a spotless track of snow. Be careful how you tread on it for every mark will show.” To those of us who grew up in the northern states and lived in the country, you know just what I am talking about when you get up in the morning after a fresh snowfall and you look around at that soft white blanket that has covered every existing imperfection and suddenly you see the world in a whole new light. I know, and you know that when the clock rings twelve on this New Years Eve, we can’t shed the baggage that follows us from the years gone by. That the only thing that has really changed is the date. That our bills, our problems and even our sins will not be erased, without some outside action on our part. But for so many of us it can be a call to action and a new beginning, if we want it to be, even if it’s actually not a reprieve. Instead it’s a benchmark if you will, a line in the sand and a new beginning for the calendar year ahead. It’s somewhat synonymous with that new snowfall that just last night covered up all that ugly dirt and imperfections. They’re gone from the eye but yet still there underneath that snowy white mantel but at least for now you don’t have to deal with them. You can focus on something new. How would I want the world to look if I had any say in the design? Well for one, I would like us all to be stripped of the greed that permeates our society. It seems so foolish that in a world, with enough room for everyone and enough food to feed everyone that this greed even exists. Number two I would make every effort to preserve this planet for the ages. There are those who find this kind of thinking, getting in the way of their efforts to make money. They don’t care about tomorrow and they don’t care who they harm. It’s like standing on a tree branch and sawing it off close to the tree. In the end we’ll all fall, rich or poor, including the person with the saw. We build up great societies and then we destroy them in wars. Then we wait a few years and we repeat the cycle. There is in my church a song we sing that say’s, “Let there be peace on earth and let it began with me.” Speaking only about our own country and speaking for myself we seem to be fighting and killing all over the globe with no positive results. At least as it applies to peace. It’s like war is big business and that is part of the price of doing business. If we want peace in this world we need to practice what we preach--but that’s right were not preaching it. Were not even talking about it. With that attitude how can it possibly begin with us? Life on this earth is precious for all of us. But one would think, at least for us human beings that we would try and refine the product even more. We have done that with almost every tangible thing we have ever made. Try to make it bigger and better over time but for some reason we can’t do it with our attitudes toward each other. Maybe this New Years Day would be a good time to start. Yes, let it begin with me.